Library of Congress
Loc: American Lives in Two Centuries: What Is an American?
In 1782 Jean de Crevecoeur published Letters from an American Farmer in which he defined an American as a "descendent of Europeans" who, if he were "honest, sober and industrious," prospered in a welcoming land of opportunity which gave...
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: Marines Confirm Mistaken Identity in Iwo Jima Photo
The photograph has been ingrained in American culture since almost the moment it was taken - a steadfast presence in high school textbooks and an enduring symbol of U.S. perseverance. But it appears we've been wrong about Joe Rosenthal's...
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: Jews & African Americans Built Tradition
Read about the history of the Freedom Seder, a Jewish and African-American tradition. Includes an audio version of the story and a video.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: Intellectual Climate
Discusses the intellectual atmosphere in the 1800s as America struggled to find its identity. The influences of the Enlightenment and Romanticism are described, and the ideas of various writers and philosophers.
Other
Stories of American Community
What does it take to make an American community? View the twelve different communities that are profiled through narrative, pictures, and audio.
Other
Americans All
Historians fear that current and future generations will no longer share their family stories. Americans All is program schools can join to encourage preservation of family legacy to continue history of heritage and culture.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: Quest for Nationalism
Describes the struggle of Americans to develop a unified sense of national identity in the 1800s.
PBS
Pbs: Alcatraz Is Not an Island
An expose on the 19 month occupation of Alcatraz by a group of Native Americans beginning in 1969. They demanded the return of Alcatraz to Indian control and began the resurgence in the American Indian Movement.
Smithsonian Institution
National Portrait Gallery: Asian American Portraits of Encounter
Exhibition of the work of seven contemporary Asian American artists considers the genre from a distinctly Asian American point of view.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages a Literary Survey
A series of 16 Instructional Units on American Literature with texts, videos, instructor guides, and more. Topics include: Native Voices, Exploring Borderlands, Utopian Promise, Spirit of Nationalism, Masculine Heroes, Gothic...
PBS
Pbs: American Family: What It Means to Be Latino
From the PBS series American Family: What it Means to Be Lation the first Latino family drama on broadcast television. What it Means to Be Latino discusses the personal experiences of Latinos in America, as well as their feelings about...
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art and Identity in British North American Colonies
Consider the English identity of American colonists by examining the sorts of imported goods and decorative arts Americans chose to purchase and display.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of the American Indian: African Native American Lives
A fascinating exhibition on the history of Americans of both African American and Native American ancestry. The exhibit looks at policies and laws that affected them, how they have formed and managed communities, their resistance...
American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association: Social Media's Growing Impact on Our Lives
Media psychology researchers are beginning to tease apart the ways in which time spent on social media is, and is not, impacting our day-to-day lives and our psychological well-being. They are looking at whether time spent on social...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690 1763
Primary source documents, including text and art, provides a look at the diversity and identity of the people in the New England colonies.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: Philosophy and Literature: History and Literature
Discusses the state of literature and written history in the 1800s as they related to the development of a national identity, and the role Romanticism played. With the passage of time, more serious literature emerged and authors began to...
Other
Memorial Hall Museum: American Centuries: Kids' Home Page
An extensive interactive that looks at clothing from the 17th through early 20th centuries, furniture, documents, and old tools.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: American Revolution: Rediscovering Britain
Article on colonial attitudes toward Britain and their own political and cultural identity.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Attacking Stereotypes, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Two images that express the growing militancy of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. This article explains how Joe Overstreet (1934-) and Betye Saar (1929-) went head to head with the formidable Aunt Jemima and with wit and irony...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Marching, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
This resource by the National Humanities Center discusses the role of physical protest in the civil rights movement. Its primary focus, the print "Freedom Now," by Reginald Gammon (1921-2005), depicts the massing of bodies in the name of...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Writing, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Articles that examine the goals of black literature. It primarily focuses on the advent of the New Negro Movement and critics assertion that black writing should abandon its explicit social and political purposes in favor of more...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Images, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
This article review examples of black protest in art by Claude Clark and Charles White. Links to images and supplemental resources are provided here as well.
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: Garifuna Americans
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of Garifuna Americans. (Note: Content is not the most current.)
Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago: Art Access: American Art to 1900
Study works of American art from the eighteen and nineteenth centuries. Works in a variety of media, including the decorative arts, are represented as are pieces by some of America's best-known artists: Copley, Church, Homer, and...
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